1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of eyeglass lens production. More particularly, the invention relates to a device for adjustably supporting lens blanks of varying diameters during a lens manufacturing process.
2. Prior Art
One method of producing ophthalmic or other types of lenses includes the process of laminating a front lens wafer and a back lens wafer together to form a composite lens. Each wafer is provided in a finished or polished form so as to provide selected optical properties in accordance with a desired lens prescription. This processing system combines and aligns selected front and back wafers so that the combined optical properties of the wafers form the prescribed lens. These lens wafers may be of varying material having a variety of pre-treatments, such as tinting and coating as examples. The lens wafers may also be formed of photo-chromatic material.
One such lens processing system allows quick delivery of high-quality progressive, single vision and flat top lenses, pre-coated with anti-reflective coating and/or a scratch resistance coating. The lens processing system has a clean air station including an alignment wheel that enables the user to properly align and combine the front and back lens to form the desired prescribed composite lens. To form the lens, a predetermined quantity of adhesive is applied between the front and back wafers, and the wafers are aligned in accordance with the requirements of a particular prescription. The composite lens is placed on a lens support assembly that includes a plurality of lens retainer pins to maintain the composite lens, having a predetermined diameter, in fixed registration to an air bag arm. The composite lens is then compressed between the lens support assembly and the air bag arm to spread the adhesive throughout the interface between the wafers and expel any bubbles disposed therebetween. Ultraviolet (UV) light is then used during the bonding process to cure the lens wafer adhesive.
Currently, wafers are provided in varying diameters, e.g. 67 and 75 mm diameter. The lens retainer pins of the lens support assembly, however, are spaced to retain a composite lens having one fixed diameter. This limits the use of such a lens processing system to produce composite lens having a single diameter. In order for a user to produce composite lenses of different diameters, the user would be required to change or swap the lens support assembly with another lens support assembly to retain a different diameter lens. Changing these support assemblies is time consuming and difficult. Moreover, the need to have multiple lens support assemblies increases the cost of the lens production system. For these reasons, the art is in need of an alternative lens support assembly which avoids the need to provide multiple support assemblies while concurrently also enabling the processing of composite lenses of varying diameters.